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Latin America

The history of Maryknoll in Latin America is rich and deep. Our commitment to the promotion of social justice and peace in the region cost several of our missioners their lives during the years of oppression, including Fr. Bill Woods, MM in Guatemala (1976), and Sisters Ita Ford, MM, Maura Clarke, MM and Carla Piete, MM in El Salvador in 1980. Some, like Fr. Miguel D’Escoto in Nicaragua, have served in public roles in support of those who live in poverty. Countless others have accompanied the Central American people in their daily struggles for survival, for social justice, for an end to the violence that destroys their communities; for new life.

Among the particular concerns of Maryknoll in Latin America are poverty, its causes and consequences; migration and refugees; health care, especially holistic care that includes good nutrition and preventative care; access to essential medicines for treatable or curable illness; HIV and AIDS; the rights and dignity of women and children; the response of authorities to the growth in gang violence; mining concessions; just trade agreements; debt cancellation; small and subsistence farming and other work accessible to people who are poor; and environmental destruction.

As the leadership of the Maryknoll Sisters, Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers and the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, we denounce the cruel and immoral “zero-tolerance” immigration policy enacted by the Trump Administration which has resulted in the separation of over 2,300 children from their parents, the criminal prosecution of anyone who crosses the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, and severe restrictions on asylum applications.

Despite the growing political volatility in Honduras, President Juan Orlando Hernandez has managed to remain in office by negotiating with the Organization of Americans States (OAS) to adopt a plan to facilitate national dialogue.

On October 25, former comedian and television celebrity Jimmy Morales won Guatemala’s presidential election after a rising anti-corruption citizens’ movement helped bring down President Otto Pérez Molina. The underlining challenges and the political views of Jimmy Morales signal major troubles ahead.

In an unsurprising decision, El Salvador’s Supreme Court has decreed that gangs and their “apologists” are now legally defined as terrorists under El Salvador’s Special Law Against Acts of Terrorism (LECAT).

While protesters in Guatemala City celebrated the resignation of their country’s president and vice president, their compadres in Honduras have been less successful in their efforts to bring reform and justice.

The arrest of Guatemala’s President Pérez Molina on charges of corruption on September 3 was a surprising turn of events that brings a ray of hope to a long-suffering country where Maryknoll missioners have served for decades.

Bolivia's decision to go ahead with a controversial highway and other projects represents a contradiction within the government of Evo Morales that advocates for a greener economy on the international stage while continuing to depend on environmentally destructive ventures nationally.

In Honduras and Guatemala, corrupt and criminal elites have colluded to enrich themselves by stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in the last few years alone from government agencies that provide social services, and revenue for the government.

Maryknollers have been actively supporting the SOA Watch campaign to close the School of the Americas (now WHINSEC) at Fort Benning, Georgia since 1990, and you can too. Purchase a limited edition t-shirt and support the growth of the movement for justice and self-determination in the Americas.

This article by Sr. Ann Braudis, published in the May-June 2015 NewsNotes, relates something of the struggle in Guatemala during recent decades: it reflects on where the majority of indigenous and poor people find themselves today.

This week's reflection was written by Maryknoll Father Ray Finch in 2016. Father Finch lived and worked in the Andean regions of Latin America for many years, and is currently Superior General of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.